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Here are our personal finance goals for 2008. These are not New Years Resolutions. I always fail at resolutions. These are concrete S.M.A.R.T. goals.
- Pay for a trip to New York City by November 2008 - $3,000
- Put $80 into savings each month for school through August 2009
- Put $50 into savings toward emergency fund (until we reach 3 months of expenses)
- Put as much money as possible toward 2007 Roth IRAs - $8,000 maximum
- After we do our taxes, put as much money toward 2008 Roth IRAs - $10,000 maximum
- Continue to pay extra on our 2nd mortgage
So far we have been very successful toward these goals. We put $200 each month toward our New York trip. We should have the trip paid for with cash in hand by August. The school saving and emergency fund come out, too. The Roth IRA contributions come from our free cash flow. We should be able to open our first one next month.
In the long term (not 2008) we are going to start saving for new cars and a trip to Europe. We use a “savings snowball” method to our savings. I’ll share more on that later.
What are your goals for 2008?
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
steadfastlove
My partner and I just sent in the last credit card payment and are closing the account tonight. Every year around Christmas I find that my inner Scrooge comes out to play when all the consumerism and commercials take over. It makes me angry to see how gullible our society is (me included).
So, we decided to take the money from selling my old truck (it was not getting driven very much), and put it to better use. We combined it with our usual amount of leftover dollars plus overtime plus a bonus from work and we managed to pay off almost $8,000 in three paychecks!!! Granted, there was a LOT of overtime and the bonus was a big surprise but we threw every spare penny at that debt that’s been gnawing at my soul for two years now. We had made the decision to do this and then everything fell into place.
Next up is the car payment and to replenish our emergency fund. Since my job is tied to the mortgage industry, I feel like I need some padding in case things don’t work out for my team at work. By the end of ‘08 we’ll be debt free except for the house and have a modest savings account.
Jan 31st, 2008
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